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Woman sentenced for role in sex ring murder

VISTA, Calif. - A woman involved in the torture and killing of a Marine wife as part of a sadomasochistic fantasy sex ring was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole.

Jessica Lynn Lopez, 28, was convicted in Oct. 2015, of first-degree murder and multiple other counts in the April 13, 2012, death of Brittany Killgore. Jurors found true a special circumstance allegation that the murder happened during a kidnapping.

Two others in the case -- 49-year-old Louis Ray Perez and 40-year-old Dorothy Maraglino, were also convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in October. They were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in mid-November.

Killgore had just filed for divorce from her Marine husband, who was deployed to Afghanistan, when she was killed. Prosecutors said Killgore was lured to a meeting with Perez, and her body was found four days later in Riverside County.

According to Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza, a stun baton found in the back of Perez's SUV had the victim's DNA on it. A plastic sheet in the back of Perez's car also had the victim's blood on it.

Lopez's attorney, Sloan Ostbye, told jurors that her client was a victim to a "slave" contract she entered into with Maraglino in the bondage and sadomasochistic world. Ostbye presented Lopez as a patsy, an abused servant forced to take the blame for a crime she did not commit.